Vaguely similar to the notion of an “alive” business and a “dead” one, I look at any application or website with a community in the same light: the <i>second</i> that some suit-wearing MBA is allowed to alienate the power users, the contributors, the developers, or the equivalent, it’s downhill into inevitable doom from there.<p>Sure, the bulk of the user pyramid might be retained — for a while — but the peak is where the action was. Like the growing shoot at the end of a branch, that’s where new applications are written, new content is produced, and new markets are created. The rest just consumes, uses, <i>and follows.</i><p>Microsoft is insisting on driving away their most important but least numerous users as hard and as fast as they possibly can.<p>No metrics will show the consequences of these decisions, and no one will be punished for tragically abusing the commons. I tiny vocal minority is lost, sure, but who cares? They were <i>troublemakers</i> and hard to market to! Good riddance.<p>The uptake of the each new Windows version is slower and slower than the one before. The excitement and innovation has been replaced by telemetry and built in crapware.<p>People stood in line to buy a copy of Windows 95.<p>Hardly anyone will install Windows 12 on purpose.